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Battle for Then Darul
The murderous horde of Gorefiend arrived on the eastern shores of the Contested Continent in Winter of Year 1 AGC eager to spill blood. They set their sights on the city-fortress of Then Darul, which had seen off a Vermin invasion only season prior. Rangers from the city quickly spotted Gorefiend's Butchers and sent warnings back. Many dwarves had succumbed to this state of near constant siege, but those who remained were stubborn veterans. The ruler of Then Darul, King Kirfur Mountainhorn, had himself starved to death during the previous siege. His two sons, Skardaen and Thrazzor took joint responsibility for the hold. They had the ancient anvil of Then Darul dragged to the gates and prepared for the inevitable. Scarcely a week later, the blood-maddened marauders from across the Everblue Ocean stood before the hold's gates. They had constructed an enormous siege tower, which they stuffed to the brim with their finest warriors. The battle began when this construction was shoved forward into the range of the dwarven artillery. Vicious salvos blew the tower to pieces, and over half the elite warriors within were mangled beyond description. The handgunners lining the walls scythed down a group of frothing maniacs with rusty flails, while Gorefiend himself was severely wounded by the hold's elite handgunners and their guild-crafted rifles. After these initial shots, the barbarian horde surged forward. Gorefiend slammed into the elite handgunners, decapitating Thrazzor before the dwarf could even draw his axe. The rest of the defenders jumped from the walls as Gorefiend's manticore tore at their prince's ragdoll corpse. The warlord and his mount then leapt from the walls onto the anvil of Then Darul, fighting madly with the anvil guards before fleeing into the skies following a flank charge by a unit of handgunners. A group of Crusher Knights and their pet giant attempted to throw Prince Skaerdaen and his royal guard from the walls a total of three times, but each time were forced to retreat. Prince Skaerdaen himself lopped the heads off two of the madmen, before turning his attention to the gates. At the hold gates, a mauler chariot slammed into the defenses, with support from King Hrolf the Mad and his maniacal guards. They eventually claimed the gates, before being turned to mincemeat by Prince Skaerdaen. Nearby, those warriors that had survived the collapse of the siege tower charged into the ruins of one of the fortress towers, easily slaying the crew of a cannon before scaling the walls and routing a group of handgunners. Following a series of bloody melees, these warriors and their battle standard bearer were eventually chopped to pieces by the enraged Prince Skaerdaen atop the gates of the hold. On the far right sections of the fortress, two groups of depraved mutants and their cowardly hounds attempted to rout a group of death seekers from the walls. They succeeded in slaying one and devoured the crew of a catapult before being beaten back. With Gorefiend taking to the skies, his army quickly lost coherency and routed. The dwarves of Then Darul had survived another terrible siege.